GdS: ‘A month without a goal’ – the reasons for Santiago Gimenez’s drought | OneFootball

Santiago Gimenez started life at AC Milan in a fantastic way, but he has now gone over one month without a goal for the club.

La Gazzetta dello Sport write that at 18:46 CET on Tuesday, Gimenez was on the other side of the world. At that moment, he became a striker who hasn’t scored for a month, because his last goal was on February 18 against old friends Feyenoord.

It was a header from less than one year out, in the first minute of the return leg of the Champions League play-off round. We all know how that ended: Theo Hernandez saw red, Feyenoord equalised and went through on aggregate, before being easily beaten by Inter.

A month is a long time for a striker, especially because it was a month without an international break, with many games and a lot of confidence from Sergio Conceiçao. It’s still early to put him on trial of course, but it is best for everyone if the drought stops soon with criticism growing.

The reasons for the struggle

Against Como, Gimenez got the ball every four minutes on average: 18 touches in 68 minutes. He put together eight successful passes, no shots and lost the ball three times. Yet, he was involved in what should have been a goal: his pass created the big chance for Yunus Musah.

Gimenez has built a solid reputation as a penalty area striker, who converts the chances he has and – like Pippo Inzaghi – hides for a few dozen minutes and then appears in front of goal. At Milan it is different: Santiago started with an assist for Joao Felix, and has shown more dropping deeper.

Why is he struggling so much? It’s partly a normal adaptation to the Italian league: for many forwards (not all), it goes like this at the beginning. It’s partly a structural crisis for Milan, because it is certainly not easy to fit into such a problematic context, with the stadium whistling and the results not coming.

It’s partly a general difficulty too, with Conceiçao urging the team to give more in terms of sacrifice and mental toughness rather than working on a free-flowing style of place. The team used to pass the ball better with Paulo Fonseca, contrary to today’s more ‘direct’ nature.

Milan will be back on the pitch next weekend against Napoli and Gimenez, in the meantime, will have traveled around the world. The Mexico coach has called him up for the Final Four of the CONCACAF Nations League and – after the win over Canada – he will play in the final vs. Panama on Sunday.

A double intercontinental flight means it is possible that Gimenez will be on the bench in Naples. Conceiçao will evaluate what is best, because Tammy Abraham remained at Milanello and will work without interruptions, with his assist for Tijjani Reijnders’ winner against Como fresh in the memory.